Officials go out of state to recruit prison staff

Published 5:30 am, Tuesday, September 11, 2001

AUSTIN -- Unable to find enough Texans willing to work as prison guards, the state's Department of Criminal Justice is looking elsewhere for new employees.

State prison officials are hoping a recently implemented pay raise will lure enough people from six nearby states to fill 3,000 correction officer vacancies.

This is the first time the prison system has recruited out of state.

The Texas prison system plans to recruit in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama. The states were targeted because they have higher unemployment rates than Texas, prison officials said.

Texas prison officials blame the guard shortage on high turnover and the state's strong economy.

The turnover rate among Texas prison guards grew from 12.1 percent in 1996 to 22 percent last year. Prison officials said recruitment efforts have been successful in Texas but have not kept pace with the number of guards quitting.

"We are continuing to recruit," said Janie Cockrell, director of the TDCJ institutional division. "The deal is that once they get here, we find out that they've gotten a better-paying job or they decide this kind of job wasn't cut out for them."

The prison guard shortage grew steadily over the past six years as the economy boomed. The agency is authorized to employ 26,000 officers, who manage 131,000 inmates in 93 facilities.

The guard shortage drew attention last year when seven inmates escaped from the maximum-security Connally Unit in Kenedy.

After the jailbreak and the murder of an Irving police officer, state legislators approved a 9.5 percent raise in the starting salary for prison guards and raised the top annual pay for a guard from $28,380 to $31,068.

Brian Olsen, executive director of the chapter of American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees that represents prison guards, applauded the recruitment effort but remained skeptical that it will alleviate the guard shortage.

"How are you going to be able to recruit outside the state when other states pay more for the same job and other states are short-staffed, too?" he asked.

Olsen said the state should have raised top pay for prison guards to the national average of about $36,000 and increased hazardous pay.

"I don't think going outside the state is going to make that much difference," Olson said.

Cockrell said the prison system will do its best to solve the problem.

"This is a nationwide problem, but I'm going to assure that we're going to do the best work that we can to try to recruit and retain our prison officers," Cockrell said. "We're not by ourselves in this."